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Public-Facing Postcards

Help KneeDeep spread the word about our regional magazine! Print our postcards, cut them out, and pin them to the bulletin boards in your favorite haunts - cafes, grocery stories, libraries... Or use them for social or digital bulletin boards. All three KneeDeep...

LA Heat Officer Shares Lessons for Northern Neighbors

Marta Segura, California’s first Chief Heat Officer, talks with KneeDeep Times about making extreme heat a priority in Los Angeles.

Fast-Forward Fire

A new study, published last month in Nature, calculates that climate change has increased the risk of fast-spreading fires by 25% on average.

Unpacking the Hold Up on Heat Protection for Indoor Workers

A long queue of indoor laborers pleaded with the Standards Board of the Cal OSHA last spring to implement long-awaited rules, developed almost five years ago, to protect workers from heat.

Can BayREN’s Biggest Budget Ever Amp Up Energy Equity?

I visited a beautiful home nestled on a hill in Berkeley this July. Inside, over a dozen construction workers were busy electrifying the home…

Leaders of the Local Grain Economy

While wheat accounts for just under 3% of California’s harvested cropland, a local grain economy has given the crop new significance.

Homegrown Go-Tos for Chillin’

A North Bay mom shares tips on how to beat the heat without AC, from wet shirts to wet blankets, and surveys her friends for more.

Imagining a More Climate-Just World

The Mycelium Youth Network releases a compendium of role playing, live-action dungeons and dragons games to help tackle the climate crisis.

Wildlife Roll With Wildfire

Imagine a Mad Max-style wasteland, ravaged by wildfire, but populated by frolicking woodland fauna. That’s what Kendall Calhoun was surprised to see just months after one of California’s biggest megafires.

Who’s on First at the SF Seawall?

Ten months after the Port of San Francisco lowered 288 experimental tiles into the water, these bio-friendly seawall surfaces are already crawling with crabs and covered in kelp. This August, researchers are finally getting a good look at all the tile types in their experiment, which range from large to small, and from bumpy to smooth, and which were hung from the waterfront at three different locations and tidal elevations in October 2022.

Shifting Tideline Calls For New Coast Guidance

A little-known tenet of California law may play a key role in preserving the state’s beaches—and the public’s access to them—as sea levels rise. “In a lot of places, the public trust boundary will move landward,” says Awbrey Yost…

Crunching the Adaptation Numbers – Not Peanuts

Regional agencies made splashy headlines when they released a joint study on the likely cost of protecting Bay Area shores from rising seas: $110 billion. But the top-line number didn’t offer much insight into the complexities. A new inventory and map from the same agencies is much more revealing.

Women At Coastal Helm Walk the Talk

A record number of women are leading coastal agencies. In this podcast, they share their visions, discuss equity and glass ceilings, and comment on work-life balance.

Riding the Bus As Climate Bliss?

You’re on the bus. It’s your evening commute. The bus is almost full. Soft waves of chatter wash over you as you watch the blurred lights of storefronts pass by.

Being Human in Big Weather

When it rained this May, it felt unexpected. Based on over 150 years of climate data for San Francisco, May typically gets several days with a light rain. But context is key, and we are coming out of three years of drought—a fact which will generally color memories in a drier hue. “If I’ve learned anything it is that people’s perceptions are usually wrong,” says Jan Null….

Return of a Lost Lake

On the heels of the worst drought in 1,200 years, Tulare Lake, at the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley, filled and filled again in the heavy rains and runoff, inundating over 100,000 acres. As the Sierra snowpack melts over the next few months, the lake could spread, prompting water managers and locals to reconsider the future of this lake, long thought “dead.”

The Lost Birds, A Review

The loss of avian diversity inspired The Lost Birds, the latest work by composer Christopher Tin, who is best known for scoring video games and movies. Released in September 2022, The Lost Birds is a tribute to extinct animals.

New Flood Protection Standard for the Peninsula

In San Mateo County, new planning guidance may help cities account for rising seas when approving new developments. OneShoreline’s proposals are stricter than current requirements from federal, state, and local agencies, but those are also evolving. “The intent is to go where we already see regulators are going,” says Makena Wong, a project manager.

Shores that Can Shapeshift AND Stay Put?

The region is obsessing over beach-building. Whether it’s a degraded salt marsh in downtown San Rafael or a sliver of wetlands near the old San Francisco shipyards, local practitioners are adding beaches as nature-based buffers against waves and rising seas to adaptation projects around the Bay.